


10 Steps

by mmmdraco



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-17
Updated: 2012-07-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 03:08:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The origin of Echizen's split-step.</p>
            </blockquote>





	10 Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is Konomi-sensei's.

Echizen Ryoma's variation on the split step was one of only a few of his usual techniques which had not come about out of necessity or curiosity. He had a tendency to pick up the tennis magazines which were sent to his father (who sometimes looked at the pictures, and never read the articles) and read about the next wave of tennis in the world.

One day, Ryoma was killing time before dinner and sat down with one of those magazines, likely from months prior. Yes, there. It had an article about one of the doubles teams gearing up for Wimbledon... which had happened 6 weeks ago. But, as Ryoma was flipping through the pages, he came across an article about an American college student who was taking the tennis world by storm. The guy wasn't really much bigger than Ryoma in the grand scheme of things, but Ryoma's Seigaku teammates made regular-sized people seem smaller than they actually were. This college guy was probably Fuji's size, Ryoma guessed. He had the same sort of build as well.

Ryoma half-heartedly read over the article before coming to an interesting line: "If the game gets tough and the other guy is firing shots back and forth, from one side of the court to the other, I just remember that if I take regular steps from one singles line to the other, it's only ten steps. That way, I remind myself that I can always get there because, really, it isn't far." This idea didn't particularly spark anything in Ryoma's mind, but he found it mildly interesting and filed it away in his head.

Later that evening, after dinner had digested a bit, Echizen Nanjiroh dragged his son outside for a short game. Karupin was sleeping on one side of the court and Ryoma walked over to rouse the outstretched cat. His foot hit the first singles line, and his memory activated, so he began to count his steps. He hit ten steps and stopped, still half a foot away from the other line. He frowned. Something had to be done about this. Ryoma paused to look at Karupin. "Karupin," he said, but the cat did not budge. So Ryoma jumped. 

As soon as Ryoma was in the air, Karupin jumped up and ran at Ryoma's feet. Ryoma led off with his other foot and was half of a court away from Karupin before he'd realized what had happened. A switch flipped in Ryoma's head, and he took his place on the court, ready to try out his new move.

It was the first game that Ryoma remembered playing against his father where he managed to keep a single serve going for almost five minutes before Nanjiroh had sent it flying deep to the line with just enough curve that Ryoma's newly-exhausted legs couldn't quite get him there. Nanjiroh *also* didn't have the opportunity to zone the volleys. He was moving on the court as well, even if it wasn't nearly as much as Ryoma had done.

At the end of the day, Ryoma smiled about tennis for the first time in a while. For once, he wasn't just taking something that someone else had created and giving an exhibition on how it *should* be used. Instead, he had found a method that was almost guaranteed to work for him in becoming strong enough to finally defeat his father.

Ryoma slept well that night with Karupin clawing at his blanket, knowing that he would have the opportunity to perfect yet another technique with his next few games. Perhaps it wasn't as nice a technique as his Twist Serve or his Flying B, but it was something that would serve him far better if he trained his body correctly.

And, at this rate, it wouldn't matter if anyone had a half-step advantage, or a half-court advantage. He'd beat them at their own game because that was what Echizen men did. Ryoma just had the special task of beating the head of the clan as well.


End file.
